Suggestion: The Trainer

Could there be a more valuable tool than a place to train our troops and recruits free of the long arm of stats and KDR in Dust 514? Its hard to say, but many would agree that its almost a necessity.



We've commented many times on how one of the biggest missteps in many online-only games is the complete lack of a tutorial and place to learn the basics of gameplay. We've always thought that the best tutorial for this genre is one that is offline, in-depth and that requires completion before you can  participate online. That is especially true for a game with this much depth and what would seem to be a steep learning curve. Since Dust 514 is the first of its kind, people simply have to be taught the basics of gameplay or we risk a generation of clueless, truly ignorant new players, and veteran players who resent them for not knowing what a tutorial should teach them. See the PS3 exclusive MAG for evidence of this.

A Trainer is something else entirely. Throughout many of our interviews many future DUST players have addressed the need for a place to train recruits, fire at targets (some that fire back) pilot, drive and even hold intrasquad exercises in a testing environment away from the unforgiving killing fields of New Eden. Good equipment costs enormous amounts of ISK and we'd rather not risk wasting a shiny new troop carrier on a recruit who's as green as the day is long--even if he claims he's the finest driver we've laid eyes on.

For as long as there has been warfare, there have been obstacles courses/shooting ranges and kill houses with record-times and other manner of high-scores that players lay claim to. Healthy competition exists in its purest form in the training environment. Trainers have the ability to add another important social element to a game that would seem to have many of them. Trainers are necessary and even if Corporations have to pay for them we doubt they'll mind. Its a vital aspect of the MMOFPS genre at this point.